Blue-printing frame.



No. 776,567. PATENTED DEC. 6, 1904. J. W. UPP & W. ,0. WAKEFIELD.

BLUE PRINTING FRAME.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 10. 1904.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

N0 MODEL.

Inventors John W. Upp, Wimam Owcrkefieid,

FiG. i.

Witnesses:

No. 776,567. I PATENTED DEC. 6, 1904. J. UPP 6: W. O. WAKEFIELD.

BLUE PRINTING FRAME.

APPLIUATION FILED MAY 10. 1904.

N0 MODEL. 3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Witnesses: Fig 2 Inventors John WnUpp,

William O. Wakefield,

No. 776,567. PATENTED DEC. 6, 1904. J. W. UPP & W. O. WAKEFIELD.

BLUE PRINTING FRAME.

APPLIOATION FILED MAY 10. 1904.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

N0 MODEL.

FEQA.

lnvehbors, John W. Upp, Wiiliom O.Wo'kefie|d,

Fi e-.8.

Atty.

UNITED STATES Patented December 6, 1904.

, PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN W. UPP AND IVILLIAM O. IVAKEFIELD, OF SGHENECTADY, NEIV YORK,ASSIGNORS TO GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, A CORPORA- TION OF NEWV YORK.

BLUE-PRINTING FRAME.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 776,567, dated December6, 1904.

Application filed May 10, 1904.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, JOHN IV. UP? and WILLIAM O. WAKEFIELD, citizens ofthe United States, residing at Schenectady, county of Schenectady, Stateof New York, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements inBlue-Printing Frames, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to blue-printing frames, and especially tothat class in which the actinic rays of light are produced by artificialmeans.

The object of our invention is to provide a blue-printing frame whichshall be simpler, more efiicient, and more easily operated than thoseheretofore in use. To this end we provide a suitable supporting-frameupon which are mounted cylindrical plates of glass and suspend lampswith their centers of illumi nation in the vicinity of the axes of thecylindrical plates. The flexible sheets or aprons, which serve to pressthe printing materials into intimate contact with each other and againstthe outer surface of the glass plates, are each secured at one edge to afixed part of the frame and wound upon a distributingroller journaled inthe free ends of a pair of arms pivoted coaxially with cylindricalplates, and these rollers are effectively biased, so that when the armsare released by the operatinglevers the flexible sheets or apronsautomatically coil up thereon, and when the actuating levers aredepressed the biasing means produce suflicient stress upon the sheets oraprons to cause them to bind smoothly and snugly upon the surface of theglass plates. The feed-circuits of the lamps are pivoted with cut-outdevices controlled by the operation of the flexible sheets or aprons, sothat they are lighted only when the entire machine is in condition toprint.

A still further improvement consists in providing a detachable devicefor temporarily holding sheets of printing materials, whereby the fullefliciency of a machine designed for making larger-sized prints may bedeveloped when operating upon sheets of small slze.

Serial No. 207,243. (No model.)

For a more complete understanding of our invention reference may be hadto the following detailed specification and the accompanying drawings,forming a part thereof, in which Figure 1 is an end elevation of ablue-printing frame embodying our invention. Fig. 2 is a side elevationof the same with a part of the flexible sheet or apron shown broken awayto disclose the detachable holding device. Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7indicate modified forms of the biasing means for the flexible sheet orapron, and Fig. 8 is a side elevation of the cut-out device.

The supporting-frame consists of four upright iron posts 1, connectedacross the ends by cross-bars 2, 3, 4, and 5, diagonally braced at thesides by bars 6. To the upper inner sides of both pairs of end posts 1are secured oval frames 7, with semicircular ends and havinginwardly-extending ledges 8, upon which rest the ends of the cylindricalglass plates 9, which extend over arcs of about one hundred and sixtydegrees. This part of our device is the same as that shown in the patentto Knox and I/Vakefield, No. 712,076, dated October 28, 1902, andaccordingly will not be described here in detail. To the inner sides ofthe topmost cross-bars 5 at their middle points we secure upright posts10 and join their upper ends by a horizontal rod 11, ad apted to receiveand carry the supporting devices 12, upon which a series of ordinaryarc-lamps 13 are hung with their luminous centers positioned in thevicinity of the axes of curvature of the glass plates 9.

To each of the intermediate cross-bars 4 are secured two stub-shafts 14,coaxial with the glass plates 9, and on each of these shafts 14 ismounted a hub 15, having a sprocket-wheel 16 and an arm 17 securedthereto.

Each of the wheels 16 meshes with a chain 18, connected at its inner endto a retractile spring 19, adjustably connected at one end to thelowermost cross-bar 2, the other end of the chain being connected to arod 20, which is pivotally secured to a foot-lever 20, fulcrumed at 21to the lower cross-bar 2, so that when the lever is pressed down thehubs 15 and the parts secured thereto at opposite ends of the machineare caused to rotate forwardly, and when released the springs 19 operateto rotate them in the reverse direction.

The arms 17 extend outwardly to the periph cries of the oval frames 7and have slotted bearings at the ends, in which are journaled rollers22, upon which the flexible sheets or aprons 23 are coiled, and in orderto permit slight radial movement of the rollers to compensate for theirincreasing diameter as the aprons are coiled thereon springs 24 areprovided, which engage the shafts of the rollers and parts 25, carriedby the arms 17. The arms are arrested at the end of their upward travelunder the recoil of springs 19 by springbuffers 26, secured to the topsof the posts 1.

The means for biasing the respective rollers 22, as shown in Figs. 1, 2,and 6, consist of pulleys 27, secured to their projecting ends, andbands 28, secured thereto at one end, passed about suitable guide-rolls29, tal eup rolls 30, and secured to the lower cross-bars 2. The take-updevice consists of a helical spring 31, engaging at its respective endswith the take-up rolls. According to this arrangement the length ofbands 28 paid out by the pulleys 27 exceeds only in slight degree theincrease in distance between the guide-rolls 29 and the rollers 22 asthe latter move upwardly, so that the total extension and constructionof s prin gs' 31 is very inconsiderable.

1n the modified arrangement shown in Fig. 3 separate take-up springs 31are provided for the respective bands 28, and instead of being arrangedhorizontally beneath the glass plates they are arranged vertically atopposite ends of the machine with their upper ends secured to fixedprojections 32 from the upper cross-bars 5 and their lower endsconnected to the bands 28, which pass down beneath guiderolls 29.

In the arrangement shown in Fig. 4c take-up weights 31 are provided,which are connected to the free ends of the bands 28 after being passedbeneath guide-101129" and over rolls 33.

In the arrangement shown in Figs. 5 and 7 the oval frames7 and therollers 22 are provided with friction-surfaces 3 1 and 35, respectively,so that a certain amount of drag is pro duced upon the rollers as theyare moved up and down over the glass plates.

The means for automatically controlling the electric circuit through thelamps consists of two pairs of contact-lingers 36 and 37, one pair foreach side of the circuit, and bridgingcontacts 38, carried by the hubs15 of the arms 17 in such position that the circuit will be closed oneither side only when the rollers 22 are in their lowermost positions.The contactlingers 36 36 and 37 37 are each provided with a bindingscrew39 and are separately mounted upon blocks 10 of insulation carried onbrackets 41, secured to cross-bar 4 between the axles 14 of the arms 17.

The means for holding small-sized sheets of printingmaterial in placeupon the cylindrical glass plates 9, so that the entire surface of theplates may be utilized, consists of a series of flat metallic strips 11,extending longitudinally of the frame and secured at their ends tospring-yokes 4E2, fastened to the oval frames 7 and extendingtransversely to strips a1 are peripheral strips 4E3, which serve to holdthe former from springing away from the glass surface. Over the ends ofthe longitudinal strips and their spring-yokes 4-2 are placed transverseprotecting-bands 4A. The smallsized sheets of sensitized paper andtracings are inserted at their upper edges between the surface of theglass plate and the longitudinal strips 11 to the full capacity of oneside of the machine. The treadle 20' is then forced down into its lockedposition, as indicated at the left-hand side of Fig. 1, drawing theflexible sheet or curtain down over the sheets of printing material andtheir retaming-strips and closing one side of the circuit betweenlingers 36 and 37. The other side of the machine is then located and theflexible sheet or apron brought down in the same manner, and as the arms17 move into their lowermost positions the bridging-piece 38 is broughtinto contact with the lingers 36 and 37 on that side of the machine,closing the other side of the electric circuit and energizing the lamps13.

\Vc do not desire to restrict ourselves to the particular form orconstruction of device herein described and shown, since it is apparentthat they may be changed and modified without departing from ourinvention.

Yhat we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of theUnited States, is-

1. The combination of a transparent printing-surface, a flexible sheetor apron, a roller for distributing said sheet or apron over saidprinting-surface, artilicial sources of light arranged in proximity tosaid printing-surface, and devices for supporting said roller havingprovisions for regulating said sources of light.

2. The combination of a cylindrical transparent printing-surface, aflexible sheet or apron, a roller for distributin said sheet or apronupon said surface, artificial sources of light arranged in proximity tosaid printingsurface, arms pivoted coaxially with said cylindricalsurface and supporting said. roller, and means carried by said arms forregulating said sources of light.

3. The combination of two cylindrical transparent printing-surfaces, aflexible sheet or apron for each of said surfaces, rollers fordistributing said sheets or aprons upon said surfaces, artificialsources of light suspended between said surfaces, arms pivoted coaxiallywith said cylindrical surfaces and supporting v its distributing-roller,arms pivoted eoaxially said rollers, and means carried by said arms forcontrolling said sources of light.

4. The combination of two cylindrical transparent printing surfaceshorizontally arranged on opposite sides of a suitable support, electriclamps suspended from said support between said surfaces flexible sheetsor aprons and their distributing-rollers, arms pivoted to said supportcoaxially with said cylindrical surfaces and carrying said rollers intheir free ends, pairs of contact-fingers arranged in the opposite sidesof the circuit of said lamps, and bridging contacts carried by said armsfor closing the circuit between said lingers.

5. The combination of a transparent printing-surface, a flexible sheetor apron and its distributing-roller, and means for biasing said rollerconsisting of a drum or pulley secured to said roller and a bandconnected to said drum or pulley, and means for producing tension onsaid band.

6. The combination of a cylindrical transparent surface, a flexiblesheet or apron and its distributing-roller, and means for biasing saidroller consisting of drums or pulleys secured to both ends of saidroller, flexible bands connected to said drums or pulleys and adapt edto be Wound thereon, and a retractile spring connected to exert tensionon both of said bands.

7. The combination of a cylindrical transparent surface, a flexiblesheet or apron and with said cylindrical surface and carrying said iroller in their free ends, and means for biasing said roller consistingof drums or pulleys secured to the opposite ends thereof, flexible bandssecured to said drums or pulleys and adapted to be wound thereon in thereverse direction to the apron or sheet, and a retractile springconnected to exert tension on said bands.

8. The combination of a transparent printing-surface, one or more stripsarranged to yieldingly hold sheets of printing materials in engagementwith said surface, and a flexible sheet or apron arranged to be drawnover said strips and surface to press the printing materials intointimate contact with each other and with the said surface.

9. The combination of a transparent printing-surface, one or more flatstrips flexibly connected at its ends to said surface and adapted tohold sheets of printing materials in engagement with said surface,transverse bands for supporting said strips intermediate their ends, anda flexible sheet or apron arranged to be drawn over said strips, bandsand surface to press the printing materials into intimate contact witheach other and with said surface.

In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands this 9th day of May,1904.

JOHN UPP. \VILLIAM O. \VAKEFIELD.

WVitnesses:

BENJAMIN B. HULL, HELEN ORFORD.

